I played chicken with a road salmon today coming out of downtown in the rain. There are more bicyclists on the roads these days in Springfield. We need to do a new round of official traffic counts to confirm this. But with more than six years experience riding as basic transportation in this town, I feel certain about what I think I’m seeing. More riders means more novices, which means, among other things, more road salmon.
How should one react? I try to carry copies of our Drive Less, Live More booklet to give to people. But that’s a tough proposition in traffic when a salmon is creating a dangerous situation.
So I was leaving downtown on Walnut Street having just crossed Jefferson. The road has been resurfaced as part of on-going streetscaping. There were cars parked on both sides of the street. I was commanding my lane and riding well outside the door zone. Three cars were following me waiting to pass.
But as I cleared the parked cars, the cars behind me were unable to pass me because I was unable to scoot right to allow them (Walnut in this area is easily sharable). On-coming traffic kept them from using the other lane to pass.
As I approached the salmon, or has he approached me, I had to keep a sharp eye out for someone involved in this situation making a dangerous move in order to protect their precious time and convenience (at my expense). Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
I remained in a commanding lane position as I passed the salmon. And I simply pointed to the left indicating that his position in traffic was less than correct.
Thing is: As soon as this guy moves over he’s (eventually) going to experience how much better it is not fighting the current. What will get him to make that first move?
Comments 6
If I understand correctly (and I’ll happily concede I don’t always…) the historical received wisdom is that in the absence of sidewalks pedestrians are supposed to walk facing oncoming traffic. I’m guessing the majority of road salmon (great photo, by the way) identify themselves closer to peds than to vehicles. I’m sure the modern school curriculum attempts to correct/transition young cyclists over to the right side – riding with traffic, but that my well directly conflict with what their moms are telling them to do.
The other thing I think about this is how peculiarly cycling lends itself to critiquing the road use of others (I’m not saying this is a bad thing, just noteworthy) since we’re not surrounded by a sound-deadening metal box. Other than honking my horn or scribbling license plate numbers and submitting them to the car-pool lane violator site I’m absolutely powerless to impact the way other motorists drive, but other cyclists?… they can hear what I hollar and I can hear and promptly ignore their advice.
I once yelled at a guy who blew through a red light, and when I caught and passed him a few minutes later he yelled at me that signalling a right turn with my right arm was impropper, we both had a good laugh over that one.
Posted 05 Aug 2010 at 11:53 am ¶For the last year or so I’ve been seeing the same guy on a bike almost daily. He’s always on the wrong side of the road, hopping the curb and taking the sidewalk in the business district (illegal in PA), turning into a one-way street from the wrong end, blowing red lights and stop signs, you name it. In fact, I have never, ever seen this guy do anything legal while on his bicycle. Ever. It’s as if he’s made a conscious decision to break every traffic law he can every time he throws a leg over. So one day I followed him and he led me to the fire station. I found out that he works there. He’s a firefighter. Go figure.
Posted 05 Aug 2010 at 12:31 pm ¶I am going to get some business cards printed up that say “To get the free e-book ‘Drive Less, Live More’, visit http://tinyurl.com/BikeSGF” . . . and hand them out to salmon!!!
Posted 05 Aug 2010 at 3:00 pm ¶Keith… That might work!
Posted 05 Aug 2010 at 3:04 pm ¶I was severely disappointed when I realized halfway through the blog post that you weren’t talking about an actual salmon in the road. That would have been way cooler.
Posted 05 Aug 2010 at 3:43 pm ¶Anthony… In Springfield, that would have been downright amazing!
Posted 05 Aug 2010 at 5:20 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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